Words according to Thomas, Co-Founder, Jack of all Trades, and Creative and Visual Director of Raven Vanguard
Ramblings of a Madman Across the Water Consumed By Batshit Lunacy, Or Impassioned Lucidity? You Be the Judge!
Like most every small, legitimately-operating, US-based business, especially one having to navigate within the over-taxing commercial hellishness of New York State, Raven Vanguard has been afflicted with the inevitability of growing pains. There are many reasons for this, the uncertainty of the global economy and Country-wide political unrest (and moral squalor) being chief culprits. And discrimination in the ever-tightening small business and consumer credit markets and a shrinking talent pool within the employment sector being equally notable as well. These barriers, while close to the edge challenging, are not insurmountable to the ongoing success of Raven Vanguard.
But the over-prioritization of cost-based decision making by project owners cannot be overlooked as perhaps the most devastating barricade to artistic creativity we face in today’s chaotic and paradoxical design environment. And it is this confounding out-to-lunch reality that sends Raven Vanguard endlessly spiraling down the rabbit hole in search of appropriate antidotes to humankind's apparent disconnection from its once inherent sensorial abilities to recognize beauty in all of its transcendent and radical variants. I am speaking of beauty in the most seductive and transformational sense; beauty so compelling that it is entirely fleeting and incomprehensible to the faint of heart and the progenitors of vanilla-based thinking — meaning, those who are imprisoned by or within a narrow minded and self-imposed comfort zone of soul-deadening strictures.
Ever since World War II, humans have stood upon a perilous knife-edge of a purblind narrative in architecture and design that relentlessly conditions us as to what beauty ought to be; but throughout this time, real beauty has been mostly beyond our collective recognition.
Query - can we resurrect beauty like the phoenix that was once almost utterly lost to the death-dealing compromise of flame and ash? I want to think we can, but sometimes the contradictory aspects of reality take hold, and I think to myself, when pigs fly. Nevertheless, since pigs have surely already taken winged flight (Roger, is that you?), Raven Vanguard takes solace in knowing that beauty's absolute reawakening is upon us and that we are destined to be one of its most ambitious visionaries.
So, as long as this earth of ours continues to rotate, we will persist in using the designed environment as the quintessential canvas upon which we will manifest our expertise and ingenuity, where the phenomenon of our creativity subtly permeates every experience so that it mysteriously transcends spectacle and brings singularity out of randomness and apathy. Curiouser and curiouser, you say? If, like us, you are in perpetual pursuit of the unknowable, go ask Alice; we think she’ll know.
Acid-taking digression aside, how can you prepare for the unknown pleasures of beauty’s reawakening? Chart your memory’s hoard, kindle the scope of your imagination, clutch at the magick of hallucination, unshackle yourself from the veneer of banality, yearn for that which is provocative, and covet the imperatives of sensuality, desire, and passion. And on top of all these, you must learn to trust those that are genuinely artistically-gifted and to ignore and openly question apparent authority in all of its many guises, and you must tirelessly reject complacency in all of its tedious forms.
Design can explore humankind’s potential for higher consciousness if you let it. Design can also alleviate the possibility of tug of war between darkness and light, and balance the sacred energy oscillating in the nearby shadows and beneath the dark side of the moon. Design can be the fulfillment of creative exploration once you step outside the confines of your safe place. Design can also perpetually illuminate the demesne of that which is truly starless and bible black. The choice is ultimately yours to make – that is why we call it freedom of choice.
To the musically literate among us, enjoy.
Words according to Dakota, SHE II, and Raven Vanguard’s third member, also known as Sloth
I’m not quite sure what to talk about this week. Two things that are on the edge of my mind are the positive aspects of social media and the internet, and a quote I read this morning that really stuck with me. I’m going to start with the quote.
Of course, as I was thumbing through Instagram stories, I came across this quote one of my good friends had posted:
You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.
Why did you spill the coffee?
“Well, because someone bumped into me, of course!”
Wrong answer.
You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.
Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled the tea.
“Whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out.*
Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it until you get rattled.
*So we have to ask ourselves… “what’s in my cup?”
When life gets tough, what spills over?
Joy, gratefulness, peace, and humility?
Or anger, bitterness, harsh words, and reactions?
You choose!
Today, let’s work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy words of affirmation; and kindness, gentleness, and love for others.
© Aliceson Waller
Reading that set me back a bit just to reflect on how I’ve been looking at my life day to day. How I truly am thankful for my life, opportunities, my family, my significant other, and time spent. It’s good to take time to show gratitude and acknowledge what makes you happy. It’s hard to not get wrapped up in current struggles, small bumps in the road, and day to day frustrations, but stepping back to see the bigger picture is so important. What contributes to your long-term positive mental health? Who has always been there for you supporting you? What are the positives and silver linings happening right now? Sit back and remind yourself. Tell yourself what you love about yourself. Tell your friends what you love about them. So, when your cup gets rocked, you can forgive, speak words of appreciation, demonstrate kindness, and remember all that is good.
And that brings me to the positives about the internet, something that is often forgotten when people get too wrapped up in the negative news, unrealistic expectations, filtered feeds etc. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The internet and social media are what you make them. And I personally am constantly reminded of how uplifting it can be connecting with friends over long distances, following motivational and inspirational pages, connecting with people who have similar interests, meeting those you never would have met, and discovering new things. I have talked about the artists I follow and pages I keep up with before in one of our ice-breaker questions, but it goes beyond that.
I met my boyfriend on Instagram. I have a better, stronger connection with him (in real life) than many of the people I have met over the years in person. Maybe that’s just luck, but I know for a fact that I probably would have never met him if it weren’t for that app. And that quote that made me feel good this morning. It was posted by a gal I had met online through some mutual friends. She’s a source of artistic inspiration as well as a person who radiates positivity on my feed. I appreciate her outlook and her posts often make my day. Another person whose positive influence would have never reached me if it weren’t for Instagram. On top of those two, I recently followed these pages: @risingwoman and @nedratawwab. Rising Woman is a page that promotes spirituality, conscious relationships, boundaries, astrology, and wellness. For me, it is a source of inspiration, connection and understanding. Nedra Glover Tawwab is a therapist as well as a boundaries expert and writer. There’s no shame in therapy, and her page is a great place to start. That is just a small glimpse into how I approach social media. It is beyond the follower count and number of likes. It’s about making connections and establishing what a positive feed would look like to you.
There are a lot of other positives that I can see slowly arising via the internet and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. One of those stems from my love of true crime and podcasts. So, as we all know I love the podcast My Favorite Murder. The women who host MFM started a podcast network that includes the new show, The Murder Squad. (I know I know, a lot of “murder” titles.) But this one is important to my point, as they use the internet to their advantage. The Murder Squad, hosted by crime journalist Billy Jensen and former cold-case investigator Paul Holes, goes over old cold-cases that are either entirely or partially unsolved. The point is to lay out the facts and information that is known on the case and to use outlets like Facebook and Twitter to essentially help solve the cold cases. I know that may seem silly, but there have been many cases where “citizen sleuths” have been involved, providing crucial information. The point is not to randomly accuse others of crimes, but to send in information privately. The internet is now a huge factor in solving the previously unsolvable. And that’s amazing. Families are finally getting justice and peace that they never thought would come.
And that is just a look into all of the good that the internet and social media can offer. A reminder that it is what you make it, just like real life situations. This was mainly about positivity and adjusting perspectives. And that’s cool.